Dining and Food

By Bazaar Staff 02/01/2018

PASTA PERFECT

Aromi spoils us for lunch

When Aromi told us they were sending us lunch just for fun, we were extremely excited. Pasta in the middle of the day? We know we should say no, but it’s our weakness! Besides, we thought that we’d be getting two or three dishes to share and a fun appetizer or two, but we were ever surprised by the outcome.

Without knowing where to start, we dug in respectively to things in order of their theme. We first tried the salads: An artfully made Caprese salad with mixed tomatoes, fresh herbs, baby mozzarella, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Alongside its Italian Salad counterpart, involving a medley of mixed greens, red onion, olives, parmesan cheese, Italian dressing, the two salads complimented each other perfectly.

Caprese Salad. Courtesy Aromi

Onto more substantial appetizers: Arancini balls, breaded and fried to perfection, took the classic risotto balls we know and love to another level. Coupled with Aromi’s signature marinara dipping sauce (or their pesto, if you’re extra creative!) you have yourself a delightful experience.

They also generously sent some beautifully breaded chicken tenders, and what was quite possibly the best garlic bread we’d ever had. This garlic bread was focaccia based, making it incredibly tender and a gorgeous melt-in-your-mouth addition to all things that were indulged in.

Spoiled for choice, we had, wait for it, ELEVEN different variations of pasta to choose from! We did the smart thing by rolling up our sleeves and taking samples from each dish.

Fried Ravioli. Courtesy Aromi

The fried ravioli, to start, was not meant to be a main – this is an appetizer – but in my opinion, toss some sauce on it and its cheesy goodness will make you swoon! Also swoon-worthy is its more substantial Ricotta Spinach cousin. Creamy and stuffed with spinach, fennel and orange zest, this was easily one of our favorite dishes.

We enjoyed two different types of lasagna, brisket (oh so tender!) and vegetarian (oh so creamy!). The most important thing to note is that the creaminess of their béchamel was just oozing out of the tender sheets of pasta monumentally. If you’re a fan of béchamel in your lasagna, we highly recommend this source for your lasagna dreams.

Bolognese. Courtesy Aromi

Traditional pastas made their way into our bellies as well: the Pomodoro with its meaty sibling in contrast, Bolognese, which contained a mixture of spices that left us reminiscent of our childhood. A classic no-nonsense Alfredo made it to the party as well, and brought along its good friend and nationwide favorite Pink Pasta. But our absolute favorites were two unsuspecting stars who we’ll forever come back to: The Pesto and the Mushroom.

Both vegetarian pastas are seemingly simple in principle, but deliver a world of flavor so explosive, that you’ll fantasize having them all on their own, without a care and without share.

Pesto Pasta. Courtesy Aromi

The pesto pasta was made with spaghetti, and burst with essence of basil, giving it an aromatic sensation while devouring. The mushroom is cozier, which is perfect for this winter season, and more bite sized with its tiny gnochetti pasta texture. All in all, these creamy pastas were absolute winners in our books, if we had to choose of course.

The best thing about Aromi isn’t its convenience, however. Yes, it’s nice that it’s a delivery-only concept, because really, who doesn’t like having pasta in the privacy of your own home (let’s face it: it’s a sweatpants food.) but that isn’t what draws us towards this piece of heaven. It’s the fact that everything from A-Z at Aromi, and all the pastas in between, are made from scratch.

With all that in mind, didn’t this just become your favorite go-to pasta joint?